Author, 2-State Legal Official Returns to Alma Mater for Address

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Bernestine Singley, former assistant attorney general for both Massachusetts and Texas, returns to the University of Florida Levin College of Law for an address on Thursday, Jan. 22.

Singley, who at her graduation from the UF law school in 1974 was one of only four African American women, will speak at 5 p.m. in 190C (first floor concourse). Her appearance – free and open to the public – is sponsored by ACCENT, the law school’s Justice Campbell Thornal Moot Court Team and its Office for Diversity and Community Development.

Now serving as a mediator and consultant, Singley is author of “When RaceBecomes Real: Black and White Writers Confront Their Personal Histories.” Issues discussed by 30 contemporary American writers include the beginnings of race consciousness, experiencing and confronting racism in the workplace, and black fans of country music.

Singley dedicated the book to the law school’s Distinguished Professor of Law and Stephen C. O’Connell Chair Walter Weyrauch, who assisted Singley and other minorities during their stays on campus.

Singley got a second law degree, from Harvard, after graduating from UF. Her work appears in a number of anthologies, including “Children of the Dream.” Singley was the 1997–98 Dewitt Wallace/Reader’s Digest Fellow during a residency at the MacDowell Colony.